That evening at dinner I could hardly stop smiling. I was finally going to be able to finish the potion! I was also relived that I would be getting the Thestral bits soon. The potion had to stew for six months before adding the part of the Thestral, and that time was almost expired.

"Forgive me for interrupting your daydreams" said Calandra as she took a seat next to me "but what's up with you?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked, giving Calandra my full attention

"You" replied Calandra "you're acting as though you're in a completely different world."

"No I'm not." I replied, and, trying to stay off the topic said "I'm just so happy that you guys care about me enough to throw a party for me, it's so sweet!"

"It was nothing" Calandra muttered, looking embarrassed, pleased, and a little guilty.

"No, really" I replied "it was incredibly awesome of you, and you don't have to look embarrassed. It was a really nice thing for you to do!"

Our conversation went on like that for the remainder of dinner. While I engaged Calandra in conversation, I also grabbed meat whenever I could and stuffed it in a small bag under the table with an anti-stain charm on it. When I thought I had enough, I excused myself from dinner, saying I was tired and wanted to go to bed.

Once in my room, I hurried to my trunk and found my finest pair of scissors in my potions kit. Withdrawing these, along with a small glass bottle, I stowed them, and the crystal ball I had received for my birthday, underneath my bed along with the bag of meat.

I then proceeded to the kitchens in my invisibility cloak. Once inside, I 'borrowed' a medium sized container and lid, and then (as gross as it my sound) tried to squeeze the blood out of uncooked steaks into the container until it was about halfway full.

I then hurried to the nearest bathroom and washed my hands profusely.

When I got back to my dormitory, I put the container of blood under my bed along with the other items I would be taking and then did my transfiguration homework. (Conjuring raccoons and then vanishing them again.)

At eight forty-five I pulled on my invisibility cloak (which was hard to do unnoticed with four other girls in the same room), took the stuff out from under my bed, stuffed it into a large tote bag, and made my way to the entrance hall where Saul was waiting for me.

I swear it took all my self control to keep from laughing when I took off my cloak. I mean, the look on his face!

"Orchid, you startled me"

Duh

"I have a startling personality. Are you ready to go?"

"I guess"

"You guess?" I asked skeptically "Either you're ready or you aren't, I don't have time for 'I guess'."

"I'm ready" replied Saul in a sulky voice "and you don't have to shout"

I was about to point out to him that I wasn't shouting, but I decided to drop it. What was the point of arguing with someone this idiotic?

I took a deep breath and reminded myself that hexing him would be a very bad idea.

"Okay then, let's go." I threw the cloak around both of us and we headed toward the large double doors that would let out of the castle.

Once outside I took great care to lock the doors behind us. Getting caught by Apollyon Pringle and chained to the ceiling for two days was not my idea of fun.

Saul was blessedly quiet for most of the walk to the forest. Most of the walk. "What's all that stuff for?" he asked when we were almost there, pointing at the large bag slung across my shoulder.

"Well," I answered, keeping my voice determinedly cheerful "the scissors and bottle are for collecting the Thestral tail hairs, that's what I decided I wanted to use for my potion, the small ball is for light, as it's dark out, the blood is for attracting the Thestrals, and that's the meat you're going to feed to them so they wont attack me when I try to get the hairs. If more than one Thestral shows up, we'll leave and come back another time."

Saul didn't answer; his face had gone white as soon as I had said that he would be feeding the thestrals meat.

Seeing his expression I hastily added "now you see why I didn't ask Dylan to come. I knew he would be way to afraid to even think about feeding a Thestral."

His face, if possible, turned paler.

I couldn't help it, I grinned at him, this really was most amusing.

Misreading my expression, he quickly controlled his emotions and looked around at the rapidly approaching forest. "Of course I'm not afraid" he muttered, sounding terrified "what kind of baby would be scared of that!"

I had to stop myself from replying 'you would'. Instead I asked as casually as I could "have you ever seen anyone die?"

I don't know why, but he looked startled at the question "Um, yah. Well, actually, I'm not sure."

"What do you mean you're not sure?" I demanded, still keeping my voice as calm and optimistic as I could.

"Well, my brother and I went hiking, and he slipped on a rock and fell off the side of the trail and broke his neck on a rock, but it was foggy, and I didn't see him hit the bottom. I didn't even know he was dead till the next day, when my family found his body." He said all this in a very normal voice, as though he were talking about the weather, like he didn't care that his brother had died. It scared me.

"Why do you want to know?" he asked. We had reached the forest now, so I threw off the cloak and stuffed it in my pocket. I didn't want something so valuable to be ripped or stained if there was no need.

"You can only see Thestrals if you've watched someone die" I answered. This guy was either unbelievably ignorant, or way more stupid than I had thought.

"Oh yah. I remember now." Definitely the latter "And you?"

"What?" I asked

"Have you ever seen someone die?"

"Oh, yes."

"Who?"

"My Uncle, now can we please talk about something else?"

"Oh, okay. Do you like Quidditch?"

"Hmm? Oh, yes I do" I said, not really paying attention

"I do too. I should have gotten on the team last year. It was really unfair, you see, both the beaters and a chaser had left Hogwarts, and I was trying out for one of the beaters. It was my turn to-"

I tuned him out and started to look for a good clearing, realizing that this would be nearly impossible in the dark; I took out my crystal marble thing and asked it to glow. The path we were following immediately flooded with light. I hastily put the marble away, hoping that I hadn't attracted any unwanted attention. Instead I took out my wand and muttered "Lumos." A dim glow lit the surrounding area. Seeing a clearing, I led Saul toward it, he was still talking.

"And then he told me I had better get of the pitch, or he would make me, so I told him- HEY!" I had just splashed some of the blood on his shirt

"What was that for!" he demanded angrily

"Do you really think only one Thestral will come if there's a whole bucket of blood to tempt them? Anyway, if I put it on the ground they wouldn't be attracted to it, it has to be clean." I did not add fresh or warm.

"Then why'd you bring so much of it!"

"So they wouldn't follow us after we were done" I put the lid back on the container

His face suddenly went white "You're using me as live bait!"

Bingo

"No, not really" I replied, and stuffed the bag of meat into his hands "if it tries to bite you, hex it, but avoid that if at all possible, it'll harm the magic of the hairs if they're cut off while it's under a spell."

Suddenly I noticed Saul was steadily turning blue. Upon looking closer, I discovered that he wasn't breathing.

"Saul! Saul! What's the matter with you!" I said in a frightened voice, and grabbing his shoulders shook him.

Wordlessly he pointed behind me, his mouth silently mouthing words. I slowly turned around dreading what I was about to see.

In the middle of the clearing, silhouetted by the pale light of my wand, was a Thestral.

Apollyon Pringle: Appall-Ian. The caretaker that Mrs. Weasley said was there in her day in book four, this story takes place before her day, but she never said how old he was, so we put him in the story.

TheLovelyLily: Thanks for reviewing!